ISRAEL TODAY: Israeli officials say it's not Iran that is Israel's greatest threat
Although Israeli officials publicly play down the crisis in relations between Jerusalem and Washington, privately the language is much different. Sources close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describe Obama as a "strategic catastrophe" for Israel.
Officials in the Prime Minister's Office, speaking on condition of anonymity to the nation's top newspapers, see the Obama administration as a serious threat to the future of the State of Israel. On the record, Israel and the US have a "strategic partnership that is unbreakable"; off the record, the terminology is blunt to say the least.
"President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have drawn a clear line, supporting the Palestinian position at the expense of Israel," said one Netanyahu confidant. "It is insane, it is sick. Relations between Jerusalem and Washington are simply disastrous; the situation has never been so dangerous. This US President wants to establish a Palestinian state at any price and hand them Jerusalem on a silver platter."
Netanyahu has repeatedly distanced himself from such statements, but commentators say the government speaks with a forked tongue. "Israel's relations with the US are at a low point, and Obama poses a danger to Israel," wrote Nahum Barnea in the nation's biggest newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
The feeling among the Israeli public is that Obama is appeasing the Muslim world at the expense of Israel.
"The American President told me in confidence that he is a Muslim," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Nile TV. That could explain why Obama has instructed that the term "Islamic extremism" no longer be used in official government documents and statements.
Furthermore, the US is now accusing Israel of harming American interests in the Middle East. General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, said Israel's intransigence on resolving the conflict with the Palestinians is endangering US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even the US Congress considers Obama's behavior toward Netanyahu humiliating. Three-quarters of the House of Representatives, 337 of 435 members, signed a bipartisan letter to Clinton expressing "deep concern over recent tension" between the two countries, and demanding that it be smoothed over quickly and in private.
"Obama is a real problem for Israel," a senior official told told Yediot. "He is Israel's biggest strategic catastrophe." >>> Aviel Schneider | Thursday, April 29, 2010
